New record for phishing attacks in May, IBM

Date: July 03, 2005
Source: THE STAR


The number of phishing attacks detected by IBM Corp. rose to a record high in May as massive volumes of scam e-mails were pumped out by criminals seeking to dupe unsuspecting victims.

Phishing is an online fraud using an e-mail with a link to a false website, where users are asked to provide personal account information. It is one of numerous types of Internet-related threats to personal and corporate security and privacy.

IBM, a global computer services company that monitors security threats on a monthly basis, said Friday that the number of phishing attacks detected in May surpassed the previous record set in January.

IBM's report also indicates that in May more than 30 per cent of emails contained some form of virus — a type of attack that to some degree affects a computer's operations.

However, the amount of spam — unwanted e-mail that's not necessarily criminal or dangerous — remained relatively stable in May, albeit with an estimated 68.7 per cent of inbound email traffic contained some form of spam.

The IBM Global Business Security Index Report assesses, measures and analyzes threats based on the data collected by IBM security professionals and half a million monitored devices.
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